Aspen Policy Academy

St. Paul Cyberattack Sparks Reflections, Calls to Action

  • Article Published August 2, 2025

This article originally appeared on Government Technology on August 2, 2025.

By Thad Rueter

The recent cyber attack in St. Paul has gained pretty much everyone’s attention in the government technology space.

It didn’t hurt that Gov. Tim Walz deployed 13 members of the Minnesota National Guard’s Cyber Protection Unit to help fix the damage — reportedly the first time that unit has deployed inside the state in its eight years of existence.

“This is definitely a serious attack,” Betsy Cooper, founding director at nonpartisan civic advocacy group Aspen Policy Academy, told Government Technology via email. “Cities are attacked regularly, but this one is particularly broad in scope. We’ve seen comparable attacks in places like Cleveland and Washington, D.C. It’s not unprecedented, but it is significant.”

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